By Melisa Ceman/reporter

Passion is important, and it helps work on overall happiness and contentment said a South Campus speaker Sept. 18.

Ticily Medley, South’s director of counseling, hosted a workshop organized to help students learn more about passion and what drives it.

“I am here because I chose to be motivated and start school again. My two children are what motivate me the most,” said former student Isela Flores about her passions and why she chose the workshop.

Medley hosted the workshop to encourage students to think about their passions. She aimed to show students ways to set goals toward passion and asked various influential questions on living passionately.

Medley planned a division retreat where she showed a PowerPoint she shared in the session. She asked herself questions such as “What will be interesting for people?” when creating the PowerPoint.

“This was a way to see what people wanted by first understanding what their passion was,” she said. “People loved it, and I expanded the PowerPoint into a free online course.”

The PowerPoint included various questions that encouraged students to think about their passion. For example, one question asked what they liked most about recess.

“This is where your passion starts, your early childhood,” Medley said.

Everyone faces challenges such as social and psychological when living out a passion. Medley encouraged students to prevent these challenges by creating an umbrella effect, “which is a way to block out things that aren’t allowing you to follow your passion,” Medley said.

The last thinking exercise given to students was a question, “What do you want to be remembered for?” Medley said the answer is usually what an individual is most passionate about.

Passion is one thing that drives people to do what they do, she said. Without passion, a person will often feel less happy than the person who lives out their passion.